How Spreadsheets Lock Drainage Designers Into Formulaic Cells

Spreadsheets can be a powerful tool used by civil engineers and hydraulic modelers to run drainage calculations. Software like Microsoft Excel can help model complex drainage systems and deliver outputs that some engineers are comfortable with for given plans and projects, but they are a blunt tool for in-depth drainage design.

 Which tool you choose to use is every drainage designer’s prerogative. In point of fact, spreadsheets are very good at some things. They’re a good complement to drainage design, particularly when it comes to transporting data into and out of your models. If you need to get your data into or out of a specific format or move it from one design app to another in the normal chain of development on a project, spreadsheets can be a huge time saver.